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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text for this evening comes from that Isaiah 48, the Old Testament reading for this evening. You may be seated. You have heard it said, better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know. Now what is all that about? It’s saying it’s much more safe… Easy, predictable, to deal with an environment where you know the errors and the problems. But it’s much more difficult and time-consuming and patience to deal with a situation where you don’t know where all the evil is coming from. Bottom line, it’s another way of saying change is very, very scary. Very scary. 26 years ago, I was in my first parish, and the gentleman by the name of Ray was one of my elders. And Ray wrote little snippets for the newsletter every month. They were really good, very depth-oriented and gospel-centered. Well, one afternoon in September, after I had been there but for a few months, I get a phone call from his daughter. I said, She’s calling because she’s fearful for her father to come pick her up because her father is completely drunk, the elder named Ray. So I go pick her up and take her home and then now I think, okay, now I’ve got to do something about this situation. I’ve got to confront him and talk to him about this because it’s completely upsetting his daughter. So I pick a night to go talk to him about this. But I talked to his daughter for a little bit prior too, and she says, well, you know those elder notes that he writes for the newsletter? And I go, yeah. She said, he’s completely drunk when he writes them. He pounds down a case of beer roughly per night. He’s not a mean drunk, and he’s not an irresponsible drunk. He’s at all the elders’ meetings. He’s at all the church functions. He keeps his yard up. He actually goes to work regularly. He takes care of all of his bills. For all intents and purposes, he seems like a stand-up kind of guy. And so I get second thoughts. But I go talk to him. He denies he has a problem. His wife makes dozens of excuses for his behavior. His job is so difficult. His hours are so long. I was trying to introduce change into his life. And he made that point very clear, not with words, but with his actions. It’s better the devil that I know in my drink than the devil I don’t know. What will I be like and what will my life be like without it? That’s how change works. Now, we don’t typically think of change being so catastrophic like that. But let us have some familiar thing that we’re very used to that may not even be a problem in our life. Have it taken away and we squeal because of that change. You’ve got to remember that the people of Israel have been out of their realm for 70 years. And now in this evening’s text, Isaiah proclaims to them, Get out of Babylon! Get out of Babylon! It’s time to leave Babylon and Chaldea. It’s time to go back to Judea and continue the service of the Lord there. But what would happen? Now here’s an interesting thing to note. They have found some documents near the city of Babylon that talks about the economic prosperity of the Jews who lived in Babylon, and it was staggering. So for them to leave Babylon would mean that they would have to liquidate all their assets… Sell them and, of course, be given way below dollar amount for it. Pack up all their belongings and move 700 miles by foot to a famine-squelched area of the world that still was not built back up. That’s change. Huge change. And, in fact, historical documents say that most of the people of Israel did not return to Israel. They stayed in Babylon. They decided to live with the devil that they knew rather than the devil that they didn’t know. But he had already brought them, yes, he had brought them out of Egypt. He had sustained them. He had given them all those things for all those years. They had his holy word. His prophets had spoken to them directly. They were comfortable, a lot like Ray. Right? Maybe not necessarily loving their life, but they sure didn’t want it to change because at least they could handle the difficulties of this life and not the life that God was calling them to. Isaiah definitely had his work cut out for him. He had to awaken their spiritual slumber, get them out of Babylon. But the people didn’t listen. They would argue with Isaiah and God. They would say, why? Why? Why would I want to leave the most powerful economic and political country in this region of the world to go to that backwater town and country of Judea that’s still famine-stricken? Why would I want to waste all of God’s money that we’ve made while we’ve been in Babylon and get rid of it so that I can go back to Judea? Why would I want to have the hassle of packing up all my belongings and moving 700 miles away? Israel had become addicted, but it wasn’t to alcohol. Israel had become addicted to enslavement, which is like alcohol too, isn’t it? Because change is frightening. For us, if God were to ask us to be stretched by giving him just a little more of our time, changing our offering by increasing it, wow, don’t you know, Lord, that that doesn’t work with my schedule or with my budget? I don’t know what God is asking you to be stretched. You do, though. And it’s very easy for you and to me to say, better the devil I know than the devil I don’t know, because we’re addicted to our life as it is, and we don’t like to upset the apple cart. Or better yet, we don’t want God to upset our apple cart as if it’s ours. At the core of this text is the Lord’s ongoing call for you and for me to leave this world alone, This world has its hooks in you and me as well. We function in it, just like the Israelites in Babylon. But what was the problem was that Babylon had become their home, and they didn’t see heaven as their home. There are things that cause us worry and anxiety with this world. It’s not our home, but we sure gripe, whine, and complain as if it is if it doesn’t go the way we wish it to go. It’s like having, we do have a deep thirst for his living water, which is here in this place. But everywhere outside of this place is all salt water. And we can think it will quench our thirst, but it won’t. It’s only here. Think about all the people that God moved in his life. Abraham and Sarah from the land of the Ur of the Chaldees all the way to the Promised Land. They picked up and moved. Noah and his three sons and all their wives left the world and lived on that boat for a long time. David had to leave the culture in the sense of maintaining fidelity to God, and yet even he had the hooks of this world in his sin of Bathsheba. Babylon’s gone. It’s a dirty, dusty place. Many of the great ruins have been completely demolished. The artifacts stolen and sold and the great world power that conquered that part of the world is no longer. We don’t know if this country will be the same. We don’t know if any country will be that. We do know where our home is. Do we live as if it’s our home? There’s an old saying that goes like this. Procrastination is my sin. It only causes me sorrow. I know I ought to change my ways. In fact, I will tomorrow. Listen to your Lord and hearken unto his word to you and more importantly, his word for you. He did not redeem you with gold or silver, but with holy precious blood. It is that great sacrifice that makes you his. He confesses you to his Father and we struggle at times by our actions confessing him. Change is terrifying, extremely terrifying. For 24 years, I thought that I had screwed up this young lady’s family, all because I thought I was doing the right thing. A few years back, I got to go back to that church and preach at the 40th anniversary. The young girl, who was my first confermand, had two children and was teaching Sunday school there. We got to talking. Her dad had come back to church and was dry. He and his wife, the enabling mother, Or a wife, the enabling one who kept him in that stupor and state as much as he himself had gotten counseling. They were back in church. They were receiving God’s gifts. They were strengthened in their faith. God changed them. But it was a heck of a fight. And it was scary as all get out for them. And I don’t know the rest of the story, how it all went to get to that point. Maybe someday I will. But. Isaiah proclaimed to the people, God’s word did his work. I didn’t trust his promise. Trust his promise. God’s word works. It has brought you thus far and it will bring you home. It is that which cleanses and purifies you and me and receives us back always. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
